The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-29

tried to make Ben start up. His feet seemed
TO bore into the sand. The child kept re-
peatlng his cry, and soon emerged again,
followed bya horTid old negro woman who
was bent, gray and toothless. and who lacked
not one attribute for the making of first
class witch She was even leaning on a
stick, and leered up at me apparently from
the whites of her eyes. She came close,
and had to stay there and let her look at
me, which she did for long time, fire.
quently making a kind of chuckling nosise
which tempted me to shrek out. She kept
saying, 'Jis so, jis So and walked round
and round me. l gave stiff blow with
my whip on Honest Ben's hind quarters, but
his feet only went down deeper in the sand.
Then this wretch laughed, and shook her
head and said; 'Whippin's no good
AFTER she had done this as long as she
wanted to do it, she stood in front of me
and said, away down in her throat:
TO tell the troof, miss, dat ar mewl am
cunjured de wuss kind of a way. / know
what am speskin' OBJ, fur / cunjured dat
mewl myself. reckon yo' bought dat crit
ter oh T. jefferson Smith, an jis cunjured
it arter he bought it,; an dat's de plain
reason whuffer he sells it. fix de mewl SOS
'twont go out OBJ walk Amt dat soF
It's true, it never goes out of a walk
answered.
" 'Zackly so. An it neber will, was the
answer, and then the old woman looked at
me long and significantly before she re-
peated, an it neber will After a moment
she added: i say now dat animile neber
leave dis very spot, p'raps; onless-' here
she gazed at me again. ] tried to say with
bold confidence that would find a conjure
doctor somewhere
''When she heard these words she
chuckled, and her face was worse to look at
than before. was SO desperate that
struck Honest Ben once more, with the
same effect as at first.
"'What am yo' reckonin', fur ter git
conjure doctor inquired the old woman.
cat this moment the steamer from
Palatka whistled, and | saw its white shape
gliding by on the river. had momen-
tary temptation to throw myself off my
steed, abandon it to the woman, rush down
to the rivers edge and claim protection
from the people on that boat, Instead of
perpetrating this fight, however, | looked
at the witch cravenly, and asked in cow
ardly manner what she meant by unless.
:" 1T follers,' she said, dat dem as cum
jures kin oncunjure'
Having said this, she remained silent to
allow the remark to sink into my mind.
II confess was somewhat bewildered. /
think the very sight of that negro woman
would have bewildered any one with spark
- AAo5hoeloAs anu NY Aiuto "Niun
bulge.
II don't believe you can make my mule
go home,'n l said.
'Jis try me-
VERY well, will try you. What are
your termsf"
"'ril onconiure dat mewl fur one dollar
and fifty cents was the definite answer.
But had no money with me and told
her SO. promised however, that | would
pay her to-day if the mule came all right.
She told me that the word of a lady like me
was exactly as good as money. She also
said that she had been grieved that such
lady should have been cheated into buying
a conjured mule, and she limited that, by
payment of small sum weekly, | should
be able to keep Honest Ben in state that
would render it impossible for any other
conjurer, no matter how powerful, to have
any effect upon him. declined to make
these weekly payments, so you see | retained
a small pc ton of my senses. After a little
palaver of this kind, insisted upon the i'm
mediate removal of the SPELL She retired
out of sight, to perform the necessary mean
tations, suppose"
Ibid the boy remainm inquired Ronald.
Eyes; think he was behind me some
where. You need not be cynical Take
the facts. After short time the witch
came forward and announced that he am
oncunjured. shook the lines. The mule
darted forward precisely as if somebody
had stuck something sharp in him from the
rear. He actually trotted rod or so. Then
he walked the rest of the way, as usual.
When I took the saddle from him, looked,
and found a small puncture that had oozed
few drops of blood on one of his TANKS.
Now, you see must pay 81 so to thatras
cally witch for having knife stuck into
Honest Ben. / expect her after the money
momentariy. ! wish, instead of keeping
my promise, we might tie her to a stake and
burn her."
"If you'll leave her 10 me-" began
Ronald
"No: gave her my word. And there
comes the boy now.n
Surely there was the small shirt blowing
in the wind, and the sturdy black legs
making slow progress toward our cabin;
the owner of legs and shirt being so given
over to the sucking of an orange that he
staggered as he walked.
We have not seen S'lange since the day
when her grandfather conducted her from
our cabin.